Gonink - Design & Print

The word green print conjures up all sorts of visions for people, from recycled paper, to less harmful inks, but this time it’s a bit different.

GreenPrint Technologies has introduced a new piece of software that can help save consumers time, money and the environment. The company estimates that with widespread use, the software could save over 100 million trees and reduce greenhouse gases by over 300 million tons globally.

“Our goal is nothing short of ending wasteful printing worldwide,” said CEO Hayden Hamilton. “We believe that GreenPrint World provides the opportunity to do exactly that. It gives home users everywhere the ability to eliminate waste which helps the environment as well as their wallets.”

GreenPrint software eliminates waste before printing by recognizing wasteful or useless items such as pages with just a URL, banner advertisement or logo and removes those items before a single page is printed.GreenPrint also allows users to remove images from a page with a single click before printing, resulting in significant savings in ink or toner. The software can also save the average user over $90 and 1,400 pages per year.

So what does this cost for the consumer? Well this is just another benefit of the software because for consumers and non-profits it is FREE.

Actually that’s not the correct number asked of presidential candidates last year about global warming according to www.moveon.org. How many times do you think TV reporters asked about the climate crisis?

A.) 514 - It is one of the top priorities facing not only our nation, but the world - right?
B.) 165 -  This was the tally for illegal immigration. You think it was higher or lower?
C.) 3 - Believe it or not, these three questions were about UFO’s. Are you serious!?

If you guessed 3, you’re spot-on. That’s how many questions were asked of these candidates on the climate crisis. Three. The same amount for the whacky and insane idea of UFO’s landing here or elsewhere.

And as a business owner, have you asked yourself any questions as of late on how you can help the climate crisis? Maybe you could start a carpool incentive for employees? Is that recycling program idea still sitting on your desk collecting desk? Or do you have the ability to reach a politician or two and get this problem at the forefront of our nations leaders?

What questions would you ask the politicians or even ask me about the climate crisis?

Let’s face it, you can’t turn on the T.V., surf the Web, read the newspaper or a magazine without some mention of people going more green in their daily lives. Maybe a mega-corporation is reducing carbon emissions. Or a celebrity has endorsed Acme Green Company as their favorite supplier of carbon neutral products. No matter the situation, people are paying attention.

Just over a week ago my wife came to me and asked about some very thick, steel pieces used for displaying products. They came from a store she was relocating, but weren’t needed anymore. And she said to me, “Well I didn’t want to throw them away because you’ve got me thinking about this recycling stuff.” I was thrilled to death to hear her say that. And just last week my sister called saying Oprah was having a special on going more “green”. But as we talked, I was a bit disgusted.

On the show and I believe on the site, they’re selling reusable bags for your shopping so you no longer throw tons of plastic bags into landfills. Which this idea is all well and good, but the bags they want to sell ore $9.00 a PIECE. Now don’t get me wrong, being more conscious of how we live in our world is important, but those prices are insane.

Consider this: My sister has two children and a husband. She probably visits the grocery store at least twice a month and can easily come home with 10-15 plastic bags that always end up in the trash.

She really wanted to start using reusable bags, but at $9.00 a piece and her needing 10-15 bags, she just wasn’t ready to spend the money.

That is until she walked into a large chain store to purchase groceries and saw reusable bags for $0.99 a piece. Now THAT is more like it in my opinion. Even lower income families could afford a half dozen of those bags and make a difference.

So yes, when you do talk about recycling, the environment and being more responsible, they’re listening. Have you got through to someone and they have changed their ways?

During this time of year, it’s cold here in the Midwest and as I type this, there is at least 5″ of fresh snow on the ground outside. Even though it’s sunny, there is a nasty nip in the air from a stiff breeze that won’t go away for the day or even into tonight.

This time of year is also associated with the common cold of aching, sneezing, coughing and a few other ailments Robitussin mentions in their commercials.

And after mentioning all of that, I’m not even writing about either, but I felt an introduction to the title was needed.

What I’m actually talking about is the recent launch of the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership by the U.S. EPA and ten large supermarkets and suppliers. Very few people realize the energy intensity — and thus climate footprint — of refigeration. I’ve even heard that Wal-Mart’s second biggest expense is energy usage, second only to employee wages.

Greenchill has set their sites on promoting better technologies, practices that protect the ozone and strategies to reduce greenhouse gases. According to the EPA, equipment improvement design and service could reduce refigerant emissions by one million metric tons of carbon per year, which is equal to taking 800,000 automobiles off the road a year.

Even Coke has figured out that if they replace all of their soft drink machines with higher efficient equipment, they could reduce the carbon output equal to 750,000 automobiles. They even had Pepsi, McDonalds, Unilever and other BIG companies — not to mention GreenPeace – form a partnership called Refrigerants Naturally.

So all in all, if industries get on the same page, a better cold could be in our future for the future.

How on earth could these two things have anything to do with one another, you might ask? Well in my opinion, no matter what we do, it all has some effect on the environment. Both negative and positive depending on the situation.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had plenty of time to relax and of course watch some of my favorite sporting events. From the NFL to my favorite NCAA basketball team, I watched the war of will, honor, integrity, talent and skill fight on to the finish. And as I did, I began to think about the environment.

I thought about the environment because I saw all of those people watching the events. Thousands upon thousands of people sitting there watching. Stadiums big enough to consume acres of land that would probably be better used for natural habitats like parks. A sea of cars, trucks & vans sprawled across even more acreage to accommodate all of those people who drove to see the event. And let’s not forget the amount of energy used to cook all of those hot dogs and burgers or the power they must consume to light up a stadium.

So what would happen if no more sporting events occurred? What kind of environmental impact would that have around the world? What kind of economic impact would it have? How many attendants, cooks, maintenance people and yes, athletes would be out of a job if we canceled sports entirely?

No matter what we do, we have an impact. That’s my point of this entire article. What other non-obvious connections to the environment can you think of that make an impact?